About
Jesse Goolsby is the author of the novel I'D WALK WITH MY FRIENDS IF I COULD FIND THEM (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and collection ACCELERATION HOURS (University of Nevada Press). His fiction and essays have appeared widely, including Narrative, Salon, Kenyon Review, Epoch, The Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, TriQuarterly, and the Best American series. He is the recipient of the Richard Bausch Fiction Prize, the John Gardner Memorial Award in Fiction, and a Holland & Knight Distinguished Fellowship from the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts. Goolsby was raised in Chester, California, and now lives in San Antonio, TX.
Featured Work
I'd Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them
Wintric Ellis joins the Army as soon as he graduates from high school, saying goodbye to his girlfriend, Kristen, and to the backwoods California town whose borders have always been the limits of their horizon. Deployed in Afghanistan two years into a directionless war, he struggles to find his bearings in a place where allies could, at any second, turn out to be foes. Two seasoned soldiers, Dax and Torres, take Wintric under their wing.
Together, these three men face an impossible choice: risk death or commit a harrowing act of war. The aftershocks echo long after each returns home to a transfigured world, where his own children may fear to touch him and his nightmares still hold sway.
This richly textured novel telescopes through time to track these unforgettable characters from childhood to parenthood, from redwood forests to open desert roads to the streets of Kabul. Throughout, Jesse Goolsby tackles questions we all face: What is the price of forgiveness? Where can we turn for companionship and understanding? Most of all, what responsibility do we bear toward others: friends, parents, lovers, children, strangers halfway across the world? When violence threatens to sever the links between us, we must strive for connection — at any cost.
Both a timely meditation on the weight of war and a humane tale of family, friendship, and love, I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them is a novel of disarming eloquence and heart-wrenching wisdom, and the debut of a bold new voice in fiction.
Other Works
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Acceleration Hours
2020
Awards and Recognition
- John Gardner Memorial Award in Fiction
- Richard Bausch Fiction Prize
- Florida Book Award
- Holland & Knight Fellow - Hambidge Center for Creative Art & Science
- Walter E. Dakin Fellow - Suwanee Writers Conference